“The truth is, that by and large, the world’s most popular and talented entertainers often come from the Flints all over this country,” said Grey’s Anatomy star/activist Jesse Williams. Williams was in Flint, Michigan, Sunday night with filmmaker Ryan Coogler, comedian Hannibal Buress and at least a dozen other performers, who traveled to the Rust Belt city to express solidarity with residents in the wake of a water crisis and to raise money at a #JusticeForFlint event.

The show was the same evening as the Academy Awards, which were under scrutiny for a lack of black nominees. Coogler, the writer and director of feature films including Fruitvale Station and Creed, insisted days before the show that despite the scheduling, the event was not a response to the awards show. The goal, he said, was to give residents a good show, and “humanize the issue” so viewers watching the show on a live internet feed could hear about what residents are going through.

“America and other bureaucracies are very effective at creating Flints, and Blackout was constructed in part to repave the roads between those who supposedly ‘made it out’ and these issues related to the rest of us, and to do that publicly,” Williams said.

“We asked ... can we let you kick back, and share some of our talents with you, and let you know that we see you, and that we are a collective, we are a family.”

A surprise appearance by Stevie Wonder ended a night of performances that included Grammy winners Robert Glasper and Estelle, Grammy-nominated artists Janelle Monae, Ledisi, Andra Day and Musiq Soulchild and Empire star Jussie Smollet.

Celebrities didn’t dominate the event; Flint told its own stories through music, poetry and testimonies. Flint residents – a woman who lost her unborn twins, a group of four children, and doctor named Mona Hannah-Attisha, whose whistleblowing helped spread the word about the water – all shared onstage. The event aired live on Revolt’s website, and will remain online for 24 hours after the show.

“A lot of them are tired of talking about it, but they know they have to, to be heard. When you talk to the people, it’s so much different from hearing about it in the paper, or reading about it, or seeing a picture,” Coogler said. “It’s incredibly heartbreaking, but it’s incredibly hopeful. The strength and resilience. You still still see people wearing Flint hats. ‘Flint strong.’ ‘Flintstones.’ Their sense of pride can’t be damaged, which in turn is a lesson learned for all of us who came in here.”

Flint has made headlines in recent months after a state-appointed emergency manager’s 2014 decision to switch the city’s water source to the local river caused residents’ water to leach lead from household pipes.

Officials downplayed tests that found lead and elevated chemical compounds in the water until October 2015, when Governor Rick Snyder announced a $12m plan to transfer Flint back to its previous source of Lake Huron, supplied by Detroit. But the damage to the pipes was already done, and lead levels remained high. Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration to provide federal aid to the city, providing bottled water, lead filters and lead tests to residents.

Since the initial switch, elevated levels of lead have been found in Flint residents’ blood, and an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease that some say is linked to lead has killed ten people in the county. Advocates have said that the city’s large makeup of black, poor people has contributed to the handling of the crisis.

“Flint didn’t exist in a vacuum before this happened, before its local and state government decided to systemically poison them. Flint has been a hotbed for racial injustice for decades: from mass incarceration, to school inequity, to really inalienated immigrant community, to unprecedented rates of unemployment,” Williams said.

On her Twitter account, Duvernay said the event raised $133,000 by allowing attendees to text “JUSTICE” to 83224. The money will go to a community action fund.

“I’d think this falls into the environmental racism category … We find ourselves trying to figure out ways for it not to be about race, but we don’t see it happening in other communities,” Williams said backstage. “You do the math. These people are poor, these people are brown, there’s a significant undocumented immigrant population here … We don’t need to do the framing; they do the framing for us.”